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abouts. Subsequently, I contacted my former colleagues at everywhere, either in use or stacked in piles in the outdoor
the ICN. Several reorganisations had blurred the overview spaces. They are orphaned and ready to be shipped from
of the collection, but the work was eventually traced. east to west, to be transformed from utility object to
It consisted of only two hills. The other parts had been vintage design piece. A fine specimen in good condition,
destroyed. An inquiry produced little, except for the story referred to as lot 248, is admired and portrayed in detail,
that, after transport from Schiedam, vermin had been before being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
found when the boxes were opened. Or, maybe it was
only a presumption that critters were hiding in the hills. The motive behind spending so much attention on used
It created panic at the art depot and the entire work was Indian office furniture is not to save cultural heritage,
removed and destroyed, save two hills. but to satisfy a growing market for design objects. Grad-
ually, genuine and carefully crafted objects make way for
In 2013, a visit followed to the remnants of the Soft disposable articles. The personnel in Chandigarh have
Living Room at the depot of the ICN in Rijswijk. They experienced that also. Their chairs have taken on a second
were in excellent condition. In the mean time, Colin lives elsewhere in the kept surroundings of luxury apart-
Huizing, curator of the Museum in Schiedam, had made ments and villas. They are used rarely and given the status
contact with Maria van Elk. He had become interested in of sculptures. And then there are other laws. At least, that
the affair. These events lead, finally, to the reconstruction! should be the case. The Soft Living Room was a unique
work and not a well-known utility object. It has had,
The time is ripe to look back. The exhibition ‘In the however, a similar fate to that of the Le Corbusier chairs.
Belly of Whale’, 9.9 – 31.12.2016, in the Witte de With, The journey to a new version of the Soft Living Room has
Rotterdam, showed ‘...how artworks change form under been longer and more difficult, though. The ‘environment’
the influence of context, preservation and interpretation. came into being in 1968 under a totally different constel-
The exhibition was inspired by story of Jonas the prophet lation than the ‘installation’ of 2013.
who did penance by jumping in the sea and meditating in
the belly of a whale for three days. By looking at artworks Knowledge and care are a prerequisite for the conserva-
and objects, changes in meaning, acceptance and appli- tion of cultural heritage. It must be known, visible and
cation of art over time can be charted.’ The theme of this understood. Especially in the minds of experts who have
exhibition is, to a certain extent, also applicable to the fate a natural focus on art and culture. Today, expertise is no
of the Soft Living Room since its creation in 1968. longer in shortage. A lack thereof cannot be used as an
excuse for careless preservation. Does this mean a new
Provenance (2013) by Amie Siegel shows the roaming chance for the Soft Living Room?
journey of a chair designed by Pierre Jeanneret, a nephew
of Le Corbusier. Her fascinating film presents, in reverse Elbrig de Groot
order, the worldwide trade in modernistic furniture, January 2017
condensed and without comment. The film begins with
shots, at a low angle, of furniture in several tasteful inte-
riors and follows, through auctions, exhibitions, photo
sessions and restoration ateliers, a chair’s journey back to
city of Chandigarh, India, built by the architects Pierre
Jeanneret and Le Corbusier. After the division of India
into a Pakistan and India in 1947, then Prime Minister
Nehru commissioned the European architects to build
and furnish a new administrative centre in Punjab. The
present state of the neglected concrete buildings is shown,
where civil servants, crowded into overflowing offices, are
busy with administration. Jeanneret chairs can be seen

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